2017 NBA Pacific Division Odds

Since so much of the NBA media right now is about the Golden State Warriors and how good the Warriors are and if they’ll be able to win another championship and how Kevin Durant fits and everything else, it’s not hard to see why the Golden State Warriors would be the favorites to win their own division. Last season it would have taken an NBA record number of wins to win the division and this team looks even scarier at times. Still, based on how things are right now it’s somewhat surprising to see the Warriors as such huge favorites.

We can go ahead and cross off the Phoenix Suns +30000 right now. This team is just a mess right now with Brandon Knight really struggling in his bench role and the rest of the team seemingly not knowing if they went to go with youth or holding on to the old guys. This is a team ripe for some trades at the deadline and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Knight or Tyson Chandler get moved.

Another team that should probably start trading is the Sacramento Kings +20000. It’s hard to see how they will ever make this thing work with DeMarcus Cousins and it might be best to let him go now and start the rebuild. The team seems to think that they need to make the playoffs, but honestly what is the point of doing that when you will just get destroyed by the Warriors? Get rid of Cousins and Rudy Gay and see what happens. This league is getting younger and the Kings are behind the eight ball in that regard.

The Los Angeles Lakers +15000 get it. They are a really fun team to watch on a nightly basis and they have really taken to Luke Walton‘s style of basketball. If they can continue to develop this should be a playoff team in the next couple of years and then possibly develop into a real threat in the West. It’s about time something good happened to the Lakers.

The only team that stands in the Warriors way is the Los Angeles Clippers +550. This is actually an intriguing bet as right now they actually have a slightly better record than the Warriors. It’s hard to imagine them keeping up this pace, but if they get the kind of bench play that we have seen thus far this season it is definitely doable. The big four has always been there and now the rest seems to be coming into focus. This could finally be the year that we see the Clippers move past the second round.

Of course, they still have to get past the Golden State Warriors -1667 who seem like they are on the verge of going on a run. They are starting to gel better as a team and figure out that when they put Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson in the corners with a Steph Curry/Draymond Green pick-and-roll that they are basically unstoppable. There is still question marks at center, on the bench and in Andre Iguodala, but when your big four are that good it doesn’t always matter.